Highscore save in Libretro Mame (0.235) / Recalbox 8.0.1?

[the.headz]

Hi!

Is there a way to save highscores in Libretro Mame (current / 0.235) / Recalbox 8.0.1 (for PC)?
I searched all over the web but either the instructions are outdated, for older versions of Recalbox or for the other Mame cores (2003, 2010, 2015, etc.).
All these other cores have the hiscore.dat in their correspondent /recalbox/share/bios/mame...XY/ folder. Putting the actual hiscore.dat in /recalbox/share/bios/mame/ has no effect, probably because the highscore save mech was changed to a plugin in later versions of Mame?!
Is there a switch I missed in the retroarch-core-options.cfg?

Kind regards, Chris.

[barbudreadmon]

@the-headz maybe https://github.com/libretro/mame/issues/35 will help

[the.headz]

@barbudreadmon: Thanks for the link. It pushed me a little further.

Obviously there is no plugins directory in this version of Mame, so the highscore save plugin cannot be activated.

With the infos from the weblink Mame was able to produce a ".mame" folder in share/system with three ini-files: mame.ini, plugin.ini, ui.ini
Copying the plugins folder from the Mame repository and modifying the mame.ini, I now have the highscore save plugin activated (at least Mame says so when I boot to OSD).

BUT: Highscores are still not saved. There seems to be an error I cannot find in the Recalbox system. (There are no logs)
I assume it has something to do with folders / folder rights, as the plugin itself determines the folder for the highscore files, not the mame.ini or plugin.ini

[the.headz]

If anyone's interested, I was finally able to get the hiscore save plugin (Recalbox 8.0.1 PC / Mame 0.235) working this way:

On your Recalbox system:

1. Start any Mame game and use Hotkey + B for retroarch menu.
2. Go to Quick menu / options and switch the following options to 'ON':
   • 'Read configuration'
   • 'Boot to OSD'
   • 'Mame ini Paths'
3. Go back from options and then to 'Resume' and exit the game.
4. Start any game and the Mame OSD comes up.
5. Go to 'Configure options / Save configuration'.
6. Use Hotkey + B for retroarch menu.
7. Go to Quick menu / options and switch the following option to 'OFF':
   • 'Boot to OSD'
8. Go back from options and then to 'resume' and exit the Mame OSD.

Now, there is a new folder in Recalbox 'share/system' called '.mame' with three ini files (mame.ini, plugin.ini, ui.ini)

On your PC:
9. Download and unpack 'mame0235b_64bit.exe' from www.mamedev.org (under Downloads/Previous Releases).
10. Copy the folder 'plugins' from the downloaded Mame release to 'share/system/.mame' (in 'share/system/.mame/plugins' only the file 'boot.lua' and the 'hiscore' folder are needed, so you can delete everything else)
11. Edit 'share/system/.mame/mame.ini' and change the value 'pluginspath' from 'system/mame/plugins' to '"/recalbox/share/system/.mame/plugins"' (with quotation marks) and change the value 'plugins' (under 'Scripting Options') to '1' (if not already set).
12. Edit 'share/system/.mame/plugin.ini' (which is empty) and insert the text 'hiscore 1' in line 1.
13. Edit 'share/system/.mame/plugins/hiscore/init.lua' and change line 25 from 'local hiscore_path = "hi";' to 'local hiscore_path = "/recalbox/share/saves/mame/mame/hi";'

Done! Your highscores are now saved in (and loaded from) the folder 'share/saves/mame/mame/hi'!

(I still wonder why noone else was facing this problem...)

[barbudreadmon]

@the-headz said in Highscore save in Libretro Mame (0.235) / Recalbox 8.0.1?:

(I still wonder why noone else was facing this problem...)

Well, i suppose very few people use that core. Tbh i wouldn't recommend it except if that's the only core emulating the game you fancy : it has a very poor libretro implementation which leads to lots of missing features and more serious issues like broken shader support on vertical games.

[the.headz]

@barbudreadmon
Hmm, I can see that point, but if you're really serious about accurate emulation (gameplay-wise) there's no way around that core. All other cores are at least 12 (Mame 2010/0.139) or 7 years (Mame 2015/0.160) back in emulation development. New great achievements (like the decapped Taito C-Chips e.g.) that even affect the actual gameplay are not available in the other cores. Let alone the bunch of new games since then. So far I had no other problems with the 0.235 core except for the highscore saving.

[barbudreadmon]

@the-headz well, for the games it supports (like those taito cchip games you mention), FBNeo is usually just as accurate as current MAME but doesn't suffer from the poor libretroization

[barbudreadmon]

@the-headz also, you can sometimes play with those gameplay-accuracy improvements in mame2003-plus, the author sometimes hooks the newly dumped MCUs.

[Zacland]

Hi !

I try to enable the folder share for system.mame

I follow the description but can't found the option @ this line :

"5 - Go to 'Configure options / Save configuration'."

I don't have this entry...

Any ideas ?

Thanks ... :3

[the.headz]

@zacland
Sorry for the delay,- I was on holiday B-)

1. Are you sure you're running the x64 PC-Version of Recalbox?
2. I verified the option is still there in the latest version 8.1.1:

• In Mame OSD you should see the list of games, directly under that list is "Configure options"
• Once selected, a small window opens with several options and "Save configuration" at the bottom

Good luck!